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by Robin Osborne
The twin 70 hp Yamaha motors bounced the six metre 'Seahorse'
through the inshore waves, encouraging the eight university
students to hang on tight. Soon the $75,000 marine research
boat cleared the break and was bobbing gently on the swell.
Smiles all around as the students prepared their scuba gear
for the dive that lay ahead.
By anyone's standards, the wide blue Pacific off Byron
Bay is a top place to be doing a university course. On a typically
cloudless day you wouldn't have got any argument from the
Coastal Management students who were on one of the field trips
that forms an integral part of their course. The previous
week they were up in a nearby rainforest to study the dank
vegetation and unique fauna; now, it was ocean time.
Max Egan, the boat's skipper, is the senior technical officer
at Southern Cross University, based at the main campus in
Lismore, about half an hour's drive from the coast. Max spends
most of his life near the sea. Not only is he envied by all
the other staff but he's renowned for getting great photos
of the Humpback whales that pass up and down the eastern seaboard
between Antartica and the calving areas of Queensland.
He turns them into postcards and frameable pictures - better
than what used to happen to whales down att he Bay! He explained
that "The uni needed a boat with enough room for students
engaged in ocean water sampling as well as for taking our
divers offshore in fairly rough conditions." He argued the
case successfully to the university's bean counters. The boat
was built in Brisbane, fitted out locally and launched recently
with a liberal dousing in champagne.
The local media liked this story - plenty of 'vision' opportunities
and enough champagne left over for them to be part of the
action. "More than 150 of Southern Cross's Resource Science
and Management students will have access to the Seahorse during
their courses," Max said. "It will be used for plankton and
mangrove study, water quality research and, in conjunction
with National Parks & Wildlife Service, studying the whale
migrations. It's also comes in handy for the local component
of a current survey of grey nurse sharks on the NSW coastline."
In the mid-1980s the Australian government introduced sweeping
changes to the education system. The most significant was
the decision to create a range of new universities, most of
them in non-urban areas. This 'democratised' education by
providing access to those who couldn't afford, or didn't want,
to move to a big city.
Today there are around 600,000 university students in Australia,
twice the number that attended in the more traditional days.
The style of study has changed, too. There's much closer contact
with the 'real world' of the workplace: the lecture room is
as likely to be a boat off Byron Bay, a tourism internship
in a successful local business such as the Beach Hotel or
playing with a band in a local pub or club (as many Contemporary
Music students do).
As locals and regular visitors know, the North Coast region
has enjoyed a tremendous boost from Southern Cross University's
presence.
The uni is now as popular with outside students as with those
who grew up here, both because of its 'spirit of place' and
its innovative teaching programs - from Humanities, Media
& Cultural Studies to Law & Paralegal Studies, Visual Arts,
Natural & Com-plementary Medicine, Human Movement,Nursing,Teaching,
Tourism & Hospitality Management, and more. (College of Indigenous
People) Southern Cross is also cutting-edge in the computer
technology field.
Thanks to a high-tech partnership with IBM, students will
soon be able to use the Internet to do everything related
to their courses - from downloading videos of lectures to
submitting assignments and getting their results on-line.
"They will be 'home delivered' electronically the very best
of study materials and resources," said the V-C, Professor
Barry Conyngham. He's a highly regarded composer whose work
includes, coincidentally, the acclaimed 'Southern Cross',
penned long before he took up the appointment here. "Rather
than just using the Web to enrich conventionally delivered
courses, we'll be offering students a fully on-line integrated
learning experience,".
Studying in this part of paradise is indeed an experience
and one that graduates say they will never forget. That's
why many of them choose to settle locally after they finish
their degrees, staying on to make their own lifestyles as
well as valuable contributions to the area's future.
Robin Osborne Author/ Journalist
Media Liaison Officer,
Southern Cross University.
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